Prior approaches for network devices use fixed queue depths. At startup time, the network device executes instructions to configure each of a set of priority queues with a predetermined number of bytes of storage, i.e., a set allocation of memory is obtained at startup for operation of the network device.
If the allocated memory storage, i.e., a priority queue of the network device, is not used because the network traffic at the network device is not segmented into all eight (“8”) priority levels, the unused allocated memory space is unavailable to priority queues.